Quotes from John Irving

smelled of cigars extinguished in puddles of beer.

And how do I say 'I miss you'? he wondered - when I don't mean 'I want to come back!'?

DO YOU CALL THAT MORALITY? DO YOU CALL THAT RESPONSIBLE? THE PRESIDENT IS ELECTED TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION; TO PUT THAT MORE BROADLY, HE'S CHOSEN TO UPHOLD THE LAW--HE'S NOT GIVEN A LICENSE TO OPERATE ABOVE THE LAW, HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE OUR EXAMPLE!

In a living city, I could never have noticed so much. Living cities don't hold still.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Franny was awful to him, but Franny was not awful; and Frank was not really awful to any of us, except he (himself) was, somehow, awful.

Between men and women," as Jenny Fields once said, "only death is shared equally.

There was more than a hint of distaste in Roberta's references to homosexuals, and Garp thought it strange that people in the process of making a decision that will plant them firmly in a minority, forever, are possibly less tolerant of other minorities than we might imagine.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY? he wrote. THERE IS SUCH A STUPID 'GET EVEN' MENTALITY-- THERE IS SUCH A SADISTIC ANGER.

heard all the grown-ups kiss Franny good night and I thought: Families must be like this—gore one minute, forgiveness the next.

IS THIS COUNTRY JUST SO HUGE THAT IT NEEDS TO OVERSIMPLIFY EVERYTHING? LOOK AT THE WAR: EITHER WE HAVE A STRATEGY TO 'WIN' IT, WHICH MAKES US-IN THE WORLD'S VIEW-MURDERERS; OR ELSE WE ARE DYING, WITHOUT FIGHTING TO WIN. LOOK AT WHAT WE CALL 'FOREIGN POLICY': OUR 'FOREIGN POLICY' IS A EUPHEMISM FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS, AND OUR PUBLIC RELATIONS GET WORSE AND WORSE. WE'RE BEING DEFEATED AND WE'RE NOT GOOD LOSERS.

It is the well educated who will improve society—and they will improve it, at first, by criticizing it, and we are giving them the tools to criticize it. Naturally, as students, the brighter of them will begin their improvements upon society by criticizing us.

It's like reading a bad newspaper or a bad piece in a magazine. (on Tom Wolfe)

even if my father never came forth to identify himself, Owen told me, God would identify him for me. "YOUR DAD CAN HIDE FROM YOU

book is always in motion – from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole, and back again. Good reading

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU LEARNED IT -- IT'S A GIFT. IF YOU CARE ABOUT SOMETHING, YOU HAVE TO PROTECT IT -- IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND A WAY OF LIFE YOU LOVE, YOU HAVE TO FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT. - owen meany :')

But some rules are just rules. You just got to break them carefully.

women are better equipped than men at enduring fear and brutality, and at containing the anxiousness of feeling how vulnerable we are to the people we love. Hope is seen as a strong survivor of a weak man's world.

Therefore, there must be a first mover existing above all—and this we call God.

Reality, for orphans, is so often outdistanced by their ideals

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

it is history that holds you accountable, and I've already expressed my opinion that Americans are not big on history. How many of them even remember their own, recent history? Was twenty years ago so long ago for Americans?

I've done all I want to do about me, already," Jenny told her son. "Now I'm interested in other people.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY?" he wrote. "THERE IS SUCH A STUPID 'GET EVEN' MENTALITY—THERE IS SUCH A SADISTIC ANGER.